Packaging and shipment of certain commercial and industrial goods often requires that such goods be packed in a box or box-like receptacle which is "custom-made" for the product. Often, such receptacles are made of corrugated cardboard. But some goods require that the receptacle be more. "robust" to withstand rough handling and/or simply because the goods themselves are quite heavy for their size.
In instances where the receptacle usage rate is high, the sheer number and bulk of receptacles "on site" at the shipping facility can present storage and handling problems. At least for that reason, special receptacles are often designed so that for storage, they can be stored folded, partly-disassembled or both. The amount of floor space thus saved is very significant. Such receptacles are set up just prior to placement of goods within the receptacle.
For boxes and other receptacles which may be stored folded and/or partly disassembled, an important consideration is the ease with which the various box components can be assembled just prior to packing and shipment. Of course, a box requiring little time to assemble adds very little to the total manufactured cost of the goods. On the other hand, a box which is difficult and time-consuming to assemble will add materially to such cost. And such a box will be a source of frustration and aggravation to those charged with the set-up task.
To cite a more specific example, one type of known wood box, made of plywood and lumber, found use in packing and shipping electrical products. Such box has a removable top and bottom and four side walls. Each pair of walls is attached together at the wall adjacent edges by a strip-like dual-channel type of hinge structure made of polyvinylchloride (PVC).
The channels face at 90.degree. degrees to one another and are attached to one another by a thin flexible web-like piece, also made of PVC but of a different formula for flexibility. When all four box walls are attached together by four lengths of hinge structure, one at each of the four box corners, the walls are folded flat "parallelogram fashion" for storage and shipping and in the course of box assembly are unfolded to define a rectangle.
A component of the finished box includes a pallet-like bottom portion. Such portion uses "1.times.4" floor-contacting stringers, plural "shoes" atop the stringers and sawn lumber atop the shoes to form the bottom of the box. For larger boxes, the shoes are "3.times.4" lumber and three shoes are required to support the sawn lumber fastened atop such shoes and forming the actual box "floor."
Components of such known wood box are shipped using an enlarged version of the box itself and from which the top and front are removable. Corner channels are aluminum and at least some shipping boxes have two compartments. As a general matter, these shipping boxes do not hold up well and often need repair or outright replacement.
A problem with the aforementioned wood box relates to the "interconnection" of the box top cover to the four side walls. The hinge structure is also used for that purpose. Each of the four edges of such top cover has attached thereto a length of hinge structure. Specifically, one channel of each such structure fits tongue-and-groove fashion along an edge of the top cover. All of such edge-attached channels face inward generally toward one another.
The other channel of each length of hinge structure faces downward and each such channel is intended to engage the top edge of one of the walls, also in tongue-and-groove fashion. However, the inward side panel of those channels engaging wall top edges (i.e., that side panel which is inside the box when the top cover is being placed or is in place) is shorter than the outward side panel.
As a consequence, the inward side panel of each length of channel almost invariably "catches on" the top edge of the wall to which that channel is to be attached. And such inward side panel, being on the inside of the box as the cover is being placed, cannot be reached to force it to fit over the wall edge. The problem has persisted for a few years and engendered a number of attempts to solve it. Such efforts include reducing the thickness of the plywood from which the walls are made, using a better (and more expensive) grade of plywood and replacing (on the top cover) the PVC hinge structure with aluminum edge fasteners. Such efforts themselves spawned yet other problems, not the least of which is that the manufactured cost of the box was significantly increased and approached the selling price.
Still another problem arising from the aforementioned wood box and hinge structure is that when the channels are relatively moved (as they are when the four walls are folded flat for storage) the web-like piece often tore or became at least partly separated from one of the channels. The integrity of a box corner, formed by the hinge structure, is therefore impaired--the box splits or tends or tends to split at a corner.
Another problem arising from the aforementioned hinge structure is that the channel side panels sometimes break along a line parallel to the structure long axis. Such side panels are simply not sufficiently strong to withstand the rigors of the application.
Yet another problem relates to the construction and resulting cost of the bottom portion as used in bottom portions for larger boxes, "3.times.4" shoes are relatively expensive. And the sawn lumber forming the box floor has relatively low bending resistance. Consequently, three such "3.times.4" shoes, one intermediate the ends of the bottom portion, are required to adequately support such sawn lumber.
Still another problem relating to the aforementioned wood box is that when folded for shipment, the box is inordinately long and is approximately equal to the length of a box side added to the horizontal dimension of a box end. As a result, the containers in which such folded boxes are shipped are relatively large.
An improved hinge structure and related box and box container which addresses the above-noted problems would be an important advance in the art.